Americans also seem more optimistic about the country's economic outlook than they have been for months.

According to the new poll, 31 percent believe the economy is getting better, the highest number since April. Twenty-four percent said they thought the economy was still getting worse and 44 percent said it seemed unchanged.

A vast majority of those polled said they favor the idea of the U.S. and Russia coming to an agreement to limit nuclear weapons, a huge show of support for the Obama administration's push to have Congress ratify the new START treaty, which is being held up by Congressional Republicans.

A whopping 82 percent said they were in favor of the U.S. signing a nuclear disarmament treaty with Moscow, views similar to those held more than thirty years ago, as the Cold War raged: in 1979, 77 percent favored the idea.

This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,067 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone November 29-December 2, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.

This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.